ianmajor

Initially I was concerned about how the lack of rigging on the remaining cannon would compare. In the event it is hard to see that there is any rigging in place when viewed through the ports. The non rigged cannon are also in deep shade under the decks.
 
To illustrate this, in the next picture the left hand cannon is fully rigged, the right hand cannon has no rigging. It also shows that if you get air trapped in the cannon bore when blackening it the bore remains bright. Doh! Plus what lovely off centre bores the Corel cannon have.  
 

 
A couple of errors/problems encountered.
 
The first was that when I pre drilled all the holes in the bulwarks for the side tackle I had the holes about 1mm too low. The result was the side tackle blocks closest to the bulwarks try to occupy the same space as the front trucks hence the side tackles don't sit neatly as shown in the next picture. Note how the far blocks are pushed out sideways through approx 90 degrees.
 
These blocks are fairly well obscured so I can live with this but I must make sure I get this correct on the cannon on the quarter deck where the tackle is in full view.
 

 
Another issue was that the deck planking was varnished long ago (it was in theory finished 30 years ago). This meant that it was a struggle to get the ropes to stick down and stay down using super glue. So after several attempts more glue was used than desirable. In places I will try to remove some of it with Isopropal Alcohol.
 
Next is to finish the pumps. Then I can climb back out of the waist area.....at last.

Initially I was concerned about how the lack of rigging on the remaining cannon would compare. In the event it is hard to see that there is any rigging in place when viewed through the ports. The non rigged cannon are also in deep shade under the decks.
 
To illustrate this, in the next picture the left hand cannon is fully rigged, the right hand cannon has no rigging. It also shows that if you get air trapped in the cannon bore when blackening it the bore remains bright. Doh! Plus what lovely off centre bores the Corel cannon have.  
 

 
A couple of errors/problems encountered.
 
The first was that when I pre drilled all the holes in the bulwarks for the side tackle I had the holes about 1mm too low. The result was the side tackle blocks closest to the bulwarks try to occupy the same space as the front trucks hence the side tackles don't sit neatly as shown in the next picture. Note how the far blocks are pushed out sideways through approx 90 degrees.
 
These blocks are fairly well obscured so I can live with this but I must make sure I get this correct on the cannon on the quarter deck where the tackle is in full view.
 

 
Another issue was that the deck planking was varnished long ago (it was in theory finished 30 years ago). This meant that it was a struggle to get the ropes to stick down and stay down using super glue. So after several attempts more glue was used than desirable. In places I will try to remove some of it with Isopropal Alcohol.
 
Next is to finish the pumps. Then I can climb back out of the waist area.....at last.

I turned my attention to the stove. Due to the restricted headroom it was difficult to fit it under the fore deck. So as part of final assembly I reduced the lengths of the legs such there was only 2mm clearance between the stove bottom and the brick base. I also reduced the height of the fittings on the still. 
 

 
A down side was that the stove now sits low against the drip try by about 0.5mm. It is not immediately obvious so I will leave it as is.
 

 
The stove now slid under the fore deck easily.
 
To fix it in place I put super glue on the underside of the base. To avoid getting glue on the adjacent grating as the stove slide in I laid in a strip of polythene which I was able to pull clear once the stove was in the correct position. The flue was glued in place through the fore deck.
 
I also added the deck beam under the rear edge of the fore deck. Of course the deck supports the beam rather than the other way round. This has got rid of the ripple effect in the deck. As can be seen in the next photo the beam protrudes beyond the deck in places so needs some final dressing. Sadly with the beam in place the still is now completely invisible.  
 

 

I turned my attention to the stove. Due to the restricted headroom it was difficult to fit it under the fore deck. So as part of final assembly I reduced the lengths of the legs such there was only 2mm clearance between the stove bottom and the brick base. I also reduced the height of the fittings on the still. 
 

 
A down side was that the stove now sits low against the drip try by about 0.5mm. It is not immediately obvious so I will leave it as is.
 

 
The stove now slid under the fore deck easily.
 
To fix it in place I put super glue on the underside of the base. To avoid getting glue on the adjacent grating as the stove slide in I laid in a strip of polythene which I was able to pull clear once the stove was in the correct position. The flue was glued in place through the fore deck.
 
I also added the deck beam under the rear edge of the fore deck. Of course the deck supports the beam rather than the other way round. This has got rid of the ripple effect in the deck. As can be seen in the next photo the beam protrudes beyond the deck in places so needs some final dressing. Sadly with the beam in place the still is now completely invisible.  
 

 

Gosh! Was it really September when I last updated this log? I must be slacking.
 
I have been making progress on the Unicorn - despite the odd distraction - mostly repetitive stuff rigging cannon. I have now finished the 12 cannon on the main gun deck that I intend to do (positions 2 to 7 counting from the bow).
 
I made up some Flemish coils (as I believe they are called) which were added to the cut ends of the cannon rigging. I have seen the debate about how the excess rope should be handled but decided that my cannon were laid out as for an inspection.
 
I also rigged one cannon in the "run in" postion. I have debated this with myself. This looks OK from above but when the ship is viewed from the side it looks like a smile with a missing tooth. I think I will get used to that.
 

 
The quarter deck rail is now fixed permanently in place. I did a dry assembly of the pump cluster which revealed two coils foul of the pump bodies - it is a bit cramped around there. So the coils were moved.
 

 
With the pumps and ladders in place the rigging on the cannon in position 7 is fairly well obscured. The lack of rigging in position 8 is not very obvious through this cluster either. 
 

Great to see an update Ian, Unicorn is looking fine and it's good to see some more examples of your innovative approach to ship modelling.
 
Cheers,
 
B. E.

Initially I was concerned about how the lack of rigging on the remaining cannon would compare. In the event it is hard to see that there is any rigging in place when viewed through the ports. The non rigged cannon are also in deep shade under the decks.
 
To illustrate this, in the next picture the left hand cannon is fully rigged, the right hand cannon has no rigging. It also shows that if you get air trapped in the cannon bore when blackening it the bore remains bright. Doh! Plus what lovely off centre bores the Corel cannon have.  
 

 
A couple of errors/problems encountered.
 
The first was that when I pre drilled all the holes in the bulwarks for the side tackle I had the holes about 1mm too low. The result was the side tackle blocks closest to the bulwarks try to occupy the same space as the front trucks hence the side tackles don't sit neatly as shown in the next picture. Note how the far blocks are pushed out sideways through approx 90 degrees.
 
These blocks are fairly well obscured so I can live with this but I must make sure I get this correct on the cannon on the quarter deck where the tackle is in full view.
 

 
Another issue was that the deck planking was varnished long ago (it was in theory finished 30 years ago). This meant that it was a struggle to get the ropes to stick down and stay down using super glue. So after several attempts more glue was used than desirable. In places I will try to remove some of it with Isopropal Alcohol.
 
Next is to finish the pumps. Then I can climb back out of the waist area.....at last.

I turned my attention to the stove. Due to the restricted headroom it was difficult to fit it under the fore deck. So as part of final assembly I reduced the lengths of the legs such there was only 2mm clearance between the stove bottom and the brick base. I also reduced the height of the fittings on the still. 
 

 
A down side was that the stove now sits low against the drip try by about 0.5mm. It is not immediately obvious so I will leave it as is.
 

 
The stove now slid under the fore deck easily.
 
To fix it in place I put super glue on the underside of the base. To avoid getting glue on the adjacent grating as the stove slide in I laid in a strip of polythene which I was able to pull clear once the stove was in the correct position. The flue was glued in place through the fore deck.
 
I also added the deck beam under the rear edge of the fore deck. Of course the deck supports the beam rather than the other way round. This has got rid of the ripple effect in the deck. As can be seen in the next photo the beam protrudes beyond the deck in places so needs some final dressing. Sadly with the beam in place the still is now completely invisible.  
 

 

Gosh! Was it really September when I last updated this log? I must be slacking.
 
I have been making progress on the Unicorn - despite the odd distraction - mostly repetitive stuff rigging cannon. I have now finished the 12 cannon on the main gun deck that I intend to do (positions 2 to 7 counting from the bow).
 
I made up some Flemish coils (as I believe they are called) which were added to the cut ends of the cannon rigging. I have seen the debate about how the excess rope should be handled but decided that my cannon were laid out as for an inspection.
 
I also rigged one cannon in the "run in" postion. I have debated this with myself. This looks OK from above but when the ship is viewed from the side it looks like a smile with a missing tooth. I think I will get used to that.
 

 
The quarter deck rail is now fixed permanently in place. I did a dry assembly of the pump cluster which revealed two coils foul of the pump bodies - it is a bit cramped around there. So the coils were moved.
 

 
With the pumps and ladders in place the rigging on the cannon in position 7 is fairly well obscured. The lack of rigging in position 8 is not very obvious through this cluster either. 
 

Thanks for the likes guys. 
 
I have made up the sets of tackle for one gun. I am including a train tackle. I have looked at the debate as to whether to include this or not. I decided to go with them.
 
I put each set of tackle under an external stress test ie a good stretch. This was to see if anything such as the hooks would let go before I assemble them on the ship proper.  The photo shows a couple of sets under test. The upper one is a set of side tackle. The left end has no hook but is lashed straight on to a homemade split pin. The lower one is the train tackle set with hooks each end.
 
No working sheaves like Grant's 1:90 Victory (here) I am afraid.
 
Thus far everything is holding.
 

 
Next is to decide on the height of the rings in the bulwarks. I have spent a fair bit of time today looking at examples of rigged guns (full size and model) on MSW and elsewhere. No two set ups were the same. I think I could safely say I could drill the four holes in almost any pattern and it will agree with someone somewhere.
 
Then I will find out if I can (or not) successfully hook the tackle up in situ. Watch this space for some embarrassed coughing.
 
 
 

Spyglass, Alistair and Grant, thanks for looking in - and thanks all for the likes.
 
Grant,
 
The rivet forming tool I have is a weird and wonderful looking thing. It is not the easiest of tools to use but it can produce very good results. I have successfully produced complex rivet patterns on brass and styrene sheet with it.
 
Basically the rivets are formed by a pointed die pressing the material in to a hole in an anvil. The press came with three anvils each with different size holes so that cosmetic rivet with heads of three different diameters can be produced.
 
The first photo shows the general layout. The press is operated via the horizontal lever at the top. Consistent pressure on each rivet is controlled via the adjustable stop. For very thin material the die may punch a hole - so the adjuster is backed off to prevent this.
 
In front of the press are the other two alternate anvils plus a die for use on half etched rivet holes in etched brass kits.
 

 
The next photo shows the operating side. The material is held in the clamp so that it extends over the anvil. The two knobs give X - Y positioning to within 0.025mm.
 

 
The third photo shows a 1mm wide strip clamped on the press, the lever being operated making the die press down on the anvil.
 

 
The next photo shows the sort of rivet work that can be achieved with this type of tool - it is the rear of the smokebox of a scratch built loco, the boiler is about 20mm in diameter. I used formulae in a spreadsheet to work out the X/Y position of each rivet in the two circles. Great fun!
 

 
There are a few downsides to this type of press not least is the fact they cost over £100 stirling.
 
However...............

Next was to press some simulated bolt heads/clamps whatever. I have riveting tool which I use in my model railway activities which came in handy here.
 
The individual caps were then sliced off.
 

 
One problem with the Corel carriages is that the trunnions sit well down in the holes so that a line along the top of the carriage touches the circumference of the trunnion. This is shown by the left hand cannon of the next photo. A normal shaped cap would curve well above the trunnion. I decided to file the top edges down between 0.5 to 1.0mm so the carriage top line would pass through the centre of the trunnion - as in the right hand carriage.
 

 
A final photo of a cannon with the new thin breeching tackle partially fitted along with (as yet) unblackened caps.
 
The cannon is standing on a jig I made to do the rigging. Yet again a case of my SIFD (Stealing Ideas From Dafi).
 

 
There will be no ship building for a few days. Tomorrow (Friday) I will be spending the day with the Manchester Chapter of the GOGs (Grumpy Old Gits). We will be sampling the delights of various Mancunian ale houses and having lengthy intellectual(?) discourses.
 
Saturday I will probably spend feeling sorry for myself.
 
Sunday I will be off to Telford to a different set of GOGs. This time it is the Gauge 0 Guild, of which I am a member - so I will be playing trains. It is also where I restock my materials and get any tools. I have decided I need some more good quality long tweezers to help with the rigging.

Alistair,
 
Thanks again. I think I may reduce the splices back to two tuck unders to make them a little more compact.
 
I notice from your entry in BE's log about your enjoyment of your "rougher pastures down here". My wife is organizing a 3 week trip to NZ next year for us, so I too will have the opportunity the enjoy those pastures. It will be in the nature of a last great project for us - any more will be a bonus.   She has wanted to go to NZ for a long time (so have I) - I think she wants to look for Hobbits (DON'T THROW THAT BRICK AT ME.      )
 
Having decided to make the breeching tackle from 0.45 thread I am now starting to produce the other 15 that will be used. I had already made 8 sets with the thicker thread which will be set aside.
 
In parallel I am preparing the gun carriages ready for rigging. I have the wedges for the quoins ready. I need to produce some caps to hold the barrels down.
 
To shape these I made a rather crude die. Very easy. I started with two pieces of scrap brass and some 1.5mm brass rod.
 
The two bits of scrap I clamped together to drill two 1.5 holes through them and soldered short lengths of the rod into the holes of one part. I then pushed them together and used my miller to make them rectangular and the same size.
 

 
I clamped the two pieces together with a long face uppermost and the join between the two in the vertical plane. Then using a 1.7mm bit I positioned the tip of the bit on the join then drilled down through them.
 

 
When the two parts were separated they were each left with a semi circular cross sectioned grove. I then soldered a length of 1.5mm rod in the grove of one of the parts. Cleaned them up then and them together to make sure they fitted. A little more cleaning around the pegs was required then all fitted well. On the left of the next photo is the part with the rod attached across the middle, the right hand one has the pegs and groove. Above them the results of a test press. The results are not perfect, I should really have taken a skim of about 0.2mm off the face of the left hand one before fitting the rod to give some clearance for the material to be pressed - but at normal viewing range the imperfections are very hard to see.
 

 
I will be using brass strip 1.5mm x 0.2mm. This is so thin that I won't need to use a vice to squeeze the die just my agricultural bodgers. The next photo shows the tool in use.
 
Using a 1.7mm drill bit to make the lateral hole and using 1.5mm rod in the groove leaves a clearance gap in the "shaping" area. Note the lateral hole/rod is nearer to one end. The distance from the rod to the end of the die will determine the distance between each pressed lump.
 

 
A slightly different view of the tool in use.
 

Mike, Joe and Peter, thanks for looking in and for your kind words.
 
I have bitten the bullet and started rigging the canon. I began with the breeching tackle. There are no eyes(?) above the cascabels to pass the rope through. I have seen breeching tackle wound around the cascabel but I decided to use cut splices. An interesting challenge!
 
I used some of the 0.7mm rigging cord supplied with the kit. This consists of three strands shroud laid. Each strand is made of three finer strands laid the opposite way.
 
My first three attempts at the cut splice are in the first image.
 

 
The approach was to reduce the ends down to a single strand for 3mm then to use whipping to secure these single strands in place. The first one came out asymmetric. It looked neat but the real breeching tackle would unlikely be like this since all the strain would be on one half of the splice splice. (Top splice in photo)
 
The second one down in photo is again a false splice but I managed to make it symmetric. Sadly the points at which the three strands are reduced to one stick out like sore thumbs. It looks ragged.
 
The third attempt in the photo I reduced the ends to two then one strand over 5mm and used longer whipping to cover this. It looked better but I was still not happy.
 
The next photo covers my next effort.
 

 
For this I whipped each end for 4mm leaving 10mm free which was opened up. The whipping is a standard type I learnt in the cub scouts nearly sixty years ago! The one leg of the whipping was left very long.
 
The two whipped parts were clamped side by side and the free ends spliced in with one tuck under and trimed off. The two long legs from the whipping were then served around the splices giving the final view in the photo. It looked much better.
 
Time to try them on the cannon. This last splice is fitted on the cannon on the left of the next photo.
 

 
I had not been using proper splices because I thought they would look fat but for the next one I decided to give it a try. I still used the whipping in the centre of the splice but this time made both halves of the splice with two tuck unders. Giving the rope a twist from both ends tightened the splice up and it was held firm with diluted PVA glue. This is in the middle of the photo.
 
Still not happy. They look like they have big mouths with wide grins.
 
So the final one I dispensed with the whipping altogether. I spliced one end in to the other rope 20mm from its end. The splice was tightened by twisting as before then glued - being clamped whilst the glue dried.
 
Previously I had used the whipping to fix the size of the splice. For this effort I used a cannon barrel and made the second part of the splice tightly around the cascabel - making sure that it remained symetrical. The second half of the splice was glued as before then the ends trimed off.
 
The result is on the right of the photo. I think this looks much better - in fact to get the barrel free would require the spliced to be cut off! 
 
Any thoughts on this?
 
For the photo I have managed to use one of the 4 carriages that will be surplus to requirements - it is rather rough as can seen.
 
The cut splice is basically 2 eye splices in tandem. I used the Animated Knots web set for inspiration. See here.

I also added the fenders and chesstrees to the hull in the waist area. Each chesstree was drilled and filed to represent a sheave to take the main tack, plus holes drilled in the hull to feed it through. There is a bulkhead extension inside at this point where a cleat should be so I will be using a stopper knot on the inside of the hull instead of belaying to a cleat. It looks OK.
 

 
A view along the hull with all of these items in place. It looks almost respectable.
 

 
That completes the exterior work on the hull for now. I still have some items to add around the stem but I need to produce the bowsprit first to make sure I get them aligned correctly.
 
So now I can't put off the gun rigging any longer.

Grant, Thank you for your kind words.Praise from a great modeler such as yourself is fine praise indeed. If I can answer any questions I am always willing to try.
 
Well I have not been totally idle over the last month. I am still working through a rigging schedule which is taking a fair amount of time.
 
I completed the gun port lids. The hinges were made of 1.2mm wide strips of 0.2mm thick brass. I embossed these to represent the bolts plus drilled them to take the rings.
 
The rings were wound from 0.3mm brass wire using a 2mm former. I also produced some split pins to hold them in place.
 
The hinge edge of the lid I drilled to take two short pieces of florist's soft iron wire. These would also go in to corresponding holes drilled in the hull to give some additional support to the lids when glued in place. The wire being soft allows the lid position to be tweaked before the glue set.
 

 
As per the contemporary models of similar sized ships I produced 5 lids per side being:
 
2 off to cover the gun ports around the crew/cooking area under the foredeck.
 
3 off covering the captains cabin, the captains sleeping quarter on the starboard side (an anti-room on the port side) and covering the gun port immediately ahead of the captains quarters.  
 
From my discussions with Mike it became apparent that the Corel plans show the channels too low down and I had fitted my channels as per the plans. The spacing of the deadeyes is also not ideal. I was concerned that they would cause me problems in fitting the lids - and so it proved to be. The lids are badly crowded by the channels. 
 
The ropes to lift the lids should enter the hull a couple of millimeters higher than I have them, but any higher and they would have fouled the channels. For consistancy I fitted all of these ropes at the same angle including the pair that are clear of the channels. Not good - but looks OK when I take my specs off.
 

 

Thank you Aldo, and thank you too Greg .
 
 
Yeah, I noticed ...... every morning there were at least 30 "Greg the Pegleg Sailor liked a post in HMS Vulture" notifications. I'm glad you like her .
 
Just for you (oh, OK the rest of you too ) here's an update. Sorry it's been so long coming but my computer's been playing up again. Today it's having a rare "good" day.
 
Topmast Futtock Staves
 
The topmast shrouds have futtock staves that are similar to the lower mast ones :
 

 

 
Fore Stay and Preventer Stay
 
Both stays are attached to the topmast head in similar fashion to the main topmast stays, with the exception that the preventer stay is above the stay :
 

 
The running ends of the stays are fed through the sheaves in the bee blocks, with the preventer stay going through the port side forward sheave and the stay going through the aft starboard sheave :
 

 
The ends of the stays have violin blocks fitted. Two 7" single blocks are stropped to the eyebolts in the knightheads, and are connected to the violin blocks by lanyards :
 

 

 
Topsail Yard Tyes
 
TFFM suggests that now is a good time to fit the Topsail Yard Tye blocks. This would be very difficult to do after the topgallant masts are fitted.
 
I made the two pairs of 14" blocks for the main and fore masts (only) from English Box in a similar fashion to all the other blocks I made previously. They seem to be getting better as I go . The two blocks are stropped with enough length to allow them to hang about a block length below the trestle trees :
 

 

 
  Danny

Topmast Ratlines
 
Nothing real different here, just more ratlines. At this stage I only have most of the ratlines on the main topmast left to do.
 
Here are the foremast ones :
 

 
And the mizzen topmast :
 

 
  Danny

I begin.
I have not too good drawing of this schooner, but I have found some photos of its and some photos of its models.
 
The initial stages of construction doesn't present a particular interest, but here you can see some photos:

I tried to make one of boats for the Atlantic, but it turned out 4-5 mm longer, than it is necessary for me ((:

Thanks David and John! I'm glad to see this much interest in such an obscure type of ship.
 
Hans, I agree. Having though about it a little, there's no way they could get that much tension just by pulling on a deadeye lanyard. Wetting the rope is an interesting idea. It certainly seems like it should work, and they may very well have done that in addition to twisting the rope.
 
I put together a quick "sketch" of an arrangement that seems feasible.
 
*Not to scale
 
It's very similar to a Spanish windlass, but borrows the removable poles from Roman torsion catapults. There would have to be an open slot running left to right across the deck, but it could be covered with a removable plank. The crossbeam on the pole allows more people to push on it at once, and the pole/crossbeam assemblies would be disassembled and stored in a rack below deck. (This is how it will be displayed on the model, unless I come across a better idea.) Once the hypozomata was fully tensioned, the wooden cylinder would be held in place with a short pole braced agains the keel, just like a Spanish windlass.
 
As far as the actual model, I've made a little more progress. Six of the middle rib sections have been cut (I cut them on a scroll saw in stacks of 6 or 8 to save time), and three have been sanded, stained and installed. Another 8 lower deck beams have been formed and stained, but haven't had the supports added yet. I'll try to post a photo in a day or so when I get them installed.
 
I've also started working on the grating that goes along the sides, which provides both ventilation and protection from arrows. The problem is that there will be a total of about 48 inches (1220mm) of grating on the ship, which means 720 pieces. I'm using Constructo 45mm bottom boards, with each board cut into two pieces with six slots each. There are 15 pieces per inch, and so far I've made about 2 inches… 690 more pieces is a long way to go. 
 

...

...

...

For the moment I gave up on the windows after several unsuccessful attempts. I am not happy with those that are now in place but I said I can change them later if I can make a better version. In the mean time I decided not to install any masts and started the upper deck framing but got lazy with the posting till somebody reminded my of it (thanks Bob  ) and here it is the past due update: